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July 5, 2009

G81: Red Sox 8, Mariners 4

Boston rallied to tie and take the lead the instant Morrow (6-6-3-2-7, 98) was pulled from the game. Three singles and three walks against Miguel Batista and Mark Lowe (who threw only four strikes among his 15 pitches) gave the Sox five runs and avoided a sweep.

The first three Boston runs came on solo dongs: Dustin Pedroia (#3) and David Ortiz (#9) in the first and Jacoby Ellsbury (#5) in the sixth.

Nick Green began the seventh by flying out to center. J.D. Drew walked on five pitches and Pedroia (who also doubled in the fifth) singled to left. Youkilis flied out to the track in left for the second out. Batista fell behind Ortiz 3-0 and Flo got the green light, ripping an RBI single into right to tie the game.

Lowe relieved Batista and could not find the plate. He walked Jason Bay on four pitches to load the bases, then walked Ellsbury on five pitches to force in the go-ahead run. He fell behind Mark Kotsay 3-1 before Kotsay grounded a full-count pitch into right field for two more runs.

Sean White, Seattle's third pitcher of the inning, struck out Jason Varitek, but not before Kenji Johjima's passed ball brought home Ellsbury with the fifth run of the inning.

An infield error prolonged the Mariners fourth inning and Lester (6.2-8-4-3-9, 122) gave up a bases-loaded triple to #9 hitter Ronny Cedeno. Only one of the four runs allowed was earned. The 122 pitches was a season-high for Lester.

Justin Masterson faced four batters and collected three strikeouts. Hideki Okajima pitched a perfect ninth to nail down the win.

There were 2 tiebreakers, LBJ's steals and Tek's OBP. I had 96 wins for the Sox, 50 steals for LBJ and .299 OBP. Right now, LBJ is on a path to 69-70 SB and Tek is at .343. I think this guy is in the lead, at least as of the halfway point:

"LOL, re my lonely comment. I just think of you guys every time I read something about Toronto"

You have that in common with my mother. She is always telling me what she reads about Canada.

"And I am NOT complaining! Just sorry to miss all that baseball."

I know, if only we could be in two places at once. I feel that way when I miss games for meetings and other activist events. I want to go to the meeting, but I want to stay home and watch the game, too.

Great weather here too. I am home sick but enjoying sitting on the patio.

Yahoo!All is right with the world again. The Sox win, my BL guys won their 1st game, (after 5 straight losses to open the season), and I finally got home in time to go do some justice to Cathy's garden. It meant missing the end of the game thread,(the game had just ended when I got home) but it was SO overdue, and who knows when I'll get another chance. Pulled 3 big wheelbarrows full of weeds out of only 2 gardens. There are 6 total, but those 2 were by far the worst.